Wednesday, April 10, 2013

CNN: it’s no wonder your ratings still aren't matching competitors. American
viewers are smarter than you assume, and we simply want truth in
reporting. As a side note, I find it interesting that CNN recently disclosed that their
old “Crossfire” show might hit their airwaves again. Wasn’t CNN among those who
issued blistering criticism about the use of a “crossfire” icon in 2010 to
represent political districts we wished to see represented by commonsense
conservatives? CNN, among others, implied that using a “crossfire” icon (which
was a tactic first employed by Democrats to illustrate political maps of
districts they “targeted” to win) was inciting violence. Sarah is it because CNN turned you down? Get a fucking life.BTW Crossfire is when two people are shooting at each other. Crosshairs is aiming at someone, just like what you did to Gabby Giffords.

Today we say goodbye to a towering figure of the 20th century. With the passing of Margaret Thatcher, we’ve sadly lost the last living member of that great triumvirate that included Ronald Reagan and John Paul II — those giants who defeated the evil empire of Soviet Communism and allowed the liberation of its captive nations. We’ve also lost one of the great champions of economic freedom and democratic ideals.

Many will focus on the fact that Margaret Thatcher’s career was a collection of “firsts” for women — she was the first and youngest female Conservative-party member to stand for election, the first woman to hold the title Leader of the Opposition, and the first woman prime minister of the United Kingdom.

But Thatcher not only broke a glass ceiling; she broke a class ceiling. She was a grocer’s daughter from the back of beyond who advanced to the height of power in a class-conscious society. Like her friend Ronald Reagan, she was an underestimated underdog and political outsider. Simon Jenkins, the former editor of the Evening Standard, once said, “There was no Thatcher group within the Tory Party. . . . She was utterly and completely on her own. She simply was an outsider in every way.”She was at heart a populist taking on the Conservative party’s old guard, who disdainfully referred to her as “That Woman.” The disdain was mutual. She referred to them as “the not so grand grandees.” As Thatcher later said, “It didn’t matter what they called me as long as I got the job done. I mean, to me they were ‘Those Grandees.’ They just don’t know what life is like. They haven’t been through it. And eventually if they didn’t help our cause, they had to go. But it didn’t bother me too much that they were patronizing like that. Frankly, the people, who are the true gentlemen, deal with others for what they are, not who their father was. Let’s face it: Maybe it took ‘That Woman’ to get things done, and the real reason why they said it was because they knew they just hadn’t got it within them to see things through.”

In taking on “Those Grandees,” she wasn’t afraid of having strong opinions and fighting for them — something the establishment often found distasteful. British ambassador Sir Anthony Parsons recalled a conversation about this: “She said, ‘You know, Tony, I’m very proud that I don’t belong to your class.’ I said, ‘Prime Minister, what class do you think I belong to?’ She said, ‘I’m talking of course about upper-middle-class intellectuals who see everybody else’s point of view and have none of their own.’” And, of course, like all conservatives and trailblazers, she had to endure more than her share of vicious media attacks. Sir Archie Hamilton once recounted how he asked Thatcher whether she read the daily newspapers. “‘Oh no!’ she replied, ‘They make such hurtful and damaging remarks about me and my family, that if I ever read the papers every day, I could never get on with the job I am here to do.’” I know exactly what she meant. And as she said, “I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”Anyone witnessing her brilliant debating skills in the House of Commons can understand why her opponents were reduced to childish attacks. She passionately demolished all their arguments with facts.Thatcher didn’t have powerful patronage. All she had were powerful ideas, ideasbased on liberty. During a meeting about the Conservative party’s best course to take in the economic crisis of the 1970s, some so-called pragmatist was arguing in favor of a Third Way between free-market capitalism and socialism. Before he was even finished, Thatcher reached for her handbag, pulled out a copy of Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty, threw it on the table, and said, “This is what we believe in!”She put those beliefs into action. Like Reagan, she was a leader for whom word and deed were one and the same. A leader of a conservative think tank behind the Thatcher revolution famously said, “We were not interested in political office for the Conservative party. We were interested in power for them to get things done.” And that’s exactly what Thatcher did. While others in her party were interested in holding on to political office and overseeing “the orderly management of [Britain’s] decline,” she actually radically reformed a broken system and brought it back to free-market principles, leaving her country stronger, wealthier, and a leader in the world when just a decadebefore it had been dismissed as “the sick man of Europe.” Her push to privatize British industry and lower tax rates led to a substantial economic expansion and became a model for other countries shrugging off the yoke of socialism.She was a visionary always ahead of her time because her vision was rooted in time-tested truths about man’s fallibilities and aspirations. Today, in light of Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis, all observers can recognize the wisdom of her unflinching defense of national sovereignty and democratic accountability. I’m sure there are many Europeans today who wish their leaders were as prescient as Britain’s Thatcher in her skepticism of ceding control to a centralized continental bureaucracy.She was above all a patriot who loved her “Land of Hope and Glory” with all her heart and believed in its greatness and its history as the “Mother of the Free.” As her current successor in 10 Downing Street said, “She didn’t just lead our country; she saved our country.” And she changed the world in the process.The grocer’s daughter from Grantham became freedom’s Iron Lady at a time when too many were soft and equivocating. She is sadly gone now, but her intrepid will, her time-tested ideals, her unfailing trust in what is right and just, and her legacy, as solid as iron, will live on forever.

Monday, April 8, 2013

I supported her early on in the 2008 presidential campaign, but had to support Barack Obama after I felt she was getting too nasty and seemed more concerned about winning than actually being president.

She has done an excellent job as Senator representing New York, and a bang up job as Secretary of State. She is articulate, intelligent, and well educated. In the past four years she has matured way beyond her years.

So why am I choosing not to support her?

It's very painful to not support her, but I am concerned about her age, her health, and the GOP Slander Machine.

If she were to become president in 2017, she will be 69 years old, same age as Ronald Reagan when he was sworn in. In fact he turned 70 two weeks later. After 70 your brain begins to slow down and ages more rapidly then in your 20-30's. I fear Alzheimers, which I belived Reagan had. Even Michael Reagan admitted as much.

Two-her health. She had that concussion and blood clot last winter which scares the bejesus out of me too. Being POTUS is the most stressful job on the planet. I'm amazed FDR lived as long as he had, serving twelve years and he had polio to boot. His son Elliott thought if they had the same advances in medical care in the 70's-80's back in the 40's FDR should have lived to at least 74 instead of 63. Even though medical science has come even farther along in this century it's no guarantee.

Three-the GOP machine will have a field day with her. I'm sure she could handle it, but they are going to be worse with her than they are with President Obama. Cuz she is a woman and wife of Bill who they could never run out of town.

If she were to get the nomination, I would definitely vote for her, just not in the primaries. As for 2016 I like long shots MD Governor Martin O'Malley and former MT Governor Brian Schweitzer. I would like to see another Democratic governor ala Bill Clinton in the White House. Former MI governor Jennifer Granholm would be great, but is ineligble.

Vice President-one of the men above or NY Senator Kristen Gillebrand, FL Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz, MN Senator Amy Klobuchar. Any one of these ladies I would be comfortable with as POTUS too.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Sarah Palin relaunched her political action committee on Thursday,
the adorably named SarahPAC, with a rousing video slamming “the big
consultants, the big money men, and the big bad media” fueling our
elections. But as John Alvon at the Daily Beast reports,
Palin is using SarahPAC to raise a political war chest ahead of the
2014 elections — money she will spend, handsomely, on conservative
political consultants.
Alvon went through SarahPAC’s Federal
Election Commission filings; his findings may surprise you. (Or not. It
is Sarah Palin we’re talking about, after all):

Seen through the lens of the invaluable Center for Responsive Politics, Palin’s PAC spent
$5.1 million in the last election cycle (more than it raised in that
time period, raising some questions about Palin’s claims of fiscal
responsibility).

But the real news comes when you look at how donors’ money was actually doled out: just $298,500 to candidates. The bulk of the rest of it, more than $4.8 million, went to — you guessed it — consultants…

Palin’s
chief PAC consultant, Tim Crawford, pocketed more than $321,000 this
election cycle in direct payments alone, according to the documents.
Aries Petra Consulting was taking in between $6,000 and $8,000 a month
for speechwriting and “grassroots consulting” — something that sounds
like an oxymoron, but ended up costing north of $160,000.

In
fact, Alvon had difficulty finding a single, non-administrative budget
item that consultants weren’t somehow involved in, leading him to note
wryly:

So when Palin thundered at CPAC that “Now is
the time to furlough the consultants, and tune out the pollsters, send
the focus groups home and throw out the political scripts, because if we
truly know what we believe, we don’t need professionals to tell us” —
it was a riff written by speechwriters and informed by all tools she
tried to diss.

Sarah haven't you learned not to throw stones in glass houses. Oh look who I am talking too.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

This femalecelebrity on Dancing With The Stars
has been hitting on a dancer from day one. He keeps turning her down.
She asked him why and he said it was because she was not famous enough
or make enough money for him to be interested.

Bristol Palin and Maksim

Maks is pretty blunt and tells it like it is. So I'm sure Bristol's feelings were hurt.
Bristol was so desperate after she and Gino broke up she was willing to hook up with Maks, who has more than once made his dislike for her known. Why would Bristol do that? Is it some kind of psych thing?

Kudos to Maks for turning her down. Guess he did not want to be next schlep wandering into Bristol's canvas tent.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

When I found out Mom was pregnant with a baby who would have Down syndrome, I confess. I was scared. I didn’t know what it would mean for his life or for ours. Well, recently World Down Syndrome Day was celebrated, and I saw this sweet post by Amy Julia Becker, who lists five things she wishes she had known when she learned that her daughter was born with Down syndrome. Here are two that jumped out at me:

You think Down syndrome means tragedy, and people will compare your experience to that of losing a child in a car accident or to cancer or some other horrible fate. And though you will experience a sense of loss, you will realize eventually that you have lost a hypothetical child, and that the child right in front of you, this child, with her sparkling eyes and crooked teeth and warm soft hand, this child is a blessing. In time, because of the privilege of knowing and loving her, you will realize that your grief has turned to gratitude and that your worry has turned to wonder.

and

You think Down syndrome means isolation, but you will discover that it brings a world of connections. It’s not only that you will now feel a bond with other parents of children with Down syndrome throughout the country and around the globe. It’s that having a child who looks and acts somewhat different from what you expected, a child who you see as beautiful and funny and kind and smart and brave, will help you to recognize that same beauty in everyone else. You will think your world has become smaller, when it has only begun to grow.

Willow Palin Shocked With Down Syndrome News

Although she "chose life," Palin said she and husband Todd struggled with how to tell the other children -- especially the two youngest, Piper and Willow, who both joined their mother for portions of the Barbara Walters interview.

"We didn't find out he had Down syndrome till the day he was born," Willow said. "So that was kind of a shock. But we didn't really care. He's still our brother."

Monday, April 1, 2013

Bristol Palin and her former boyfriend Gino Paoletti are back together.

“We are pleased to announce that we have reconciled. . We are looking forward to our future together,” read the statement, which Bristol posted on her blog on March 31.

“Happy Easter Everyone! My hope is for everyone to have a blessed, healthy, happy Easter full of joy and laughter. I’m thankful for the 99% of fans that have expressed love and support for Gino and I,” Bristol wrote on Dec. 31.

Aside from Bristol's joyous message on yesterday, the recently reunited couple have been using their Twitter and Facebook accounts to show signs of love to one another.

News of Bristol and Gino being an item surfaced back in December 2010. They broke up last year.

Does this mean another reality show is in the works? I hope not because the ratings from Life's a Tripp were in the toilet.